Posted on 12/03/2004 7:34:52 PM PST by RWR8189
A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR who attended a special screening of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was asked what he thought was the most revealing part about President Bush. The senator pondered a moment, then said it was the episode where Bush, in close-up, continues to talk to a grade-school class in Sarasota, Florida, for six or seven minutes after he's learned that planes had flown into the World Trade Center. What did it reveal? The senator couldn't say.
My impression, as Bush begins his second term in the White House, is that many in the political community, including the press, still haven't figured him out. One reason is the Bush presidency has emerged quite differently from what was expected. So here are five things about the president that help explain why he does what he does. They aren't the only five aspects of his presidency, but they're five important ones.
* ACTIVIST. The label is usually applied to liberal politicians, rarely conservatives. In Bush's case, it means he has a lengthy agenda and is impatient about enacting it. And it's an agenda--Social Security reform, altering the balance on the Supreme Court, tax reform, reversing cultural trends, a crusade for democracy around the globe--for change. Bush didn't get his activist streak from his father. George H.W. Bush was a caretaker president, dealing with items as they arrived in his in-basket. He lost his bid for reelection in 1992 partly because he didn't have much on his mind for a second term. Bush has a lot, and it's not trivial. One of his most stinging criticisms is to label a proposal "smallball"--in other words, not big or bold enough for serious presidential attention.
* OUTSIDER. Bush is an alien inside the Beltway. His election was the equivalent of getting a green card to work in Washington. He's not part of the social whirl. Nor has he made many close friends on Capitol Hill or around town. What separates him from the Washington crowd? More than anything else, it's religion. Bush is the first president who's a product of the modern evangelical movement, which means his Christian faith is personal, intense, and all-encompassing. It's not a part-time, Sunday-only thing. Leave Washington and you frequently encounter people who say of the president, "He's one of us." You don't hear that in Washington. A Texas friend recently sent the president a copy of Natan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy. Bush read most of it and asked Sharansky to meet with him at the White House. Bush praised Sharansky for his years as a dissident in the Soviet Union. To which Sharansky replied, "Now you are the chief dissident of the world."
* PRESS-BASHER. Bush has not made peace with the press, far from it. He views most reporters as political opponents eager to pepper him with gotcha questions. In Colombia last month, he appeared before reporters with President Alvaro Uribe. Bush didn't like the first question about a scuffle two days earlier involving the Secret Service. "This is a question?" he said, and gave a curt answer. Uribe said, "Do you want to get in one more [question]?" Bush said, "That's plenty. No. Thank you," ending the press conference prematurely.
Bush believes, correctly, that the Washington press corps favored John Kerry in the election. "Ninety percent for Kerry" is what White House aides say. Coverage of Bush reflected this. The Center for Media and Public Affairs found that coverage of Kerry was the most favorable for any presidential candidate since it began examining campaigns in 1988, while Bush's was mostly negative. Reporters complain they get little information from the White House. Chances are they'll get even less in the second term. Bush's calculation is that spending more time with the press would be time poorly spent.
* SURPRISER. Bush likes to defy the conventional wisdom. He often does it without even trying. I recently asked a leading supporter of Israel if he had known Bush would become the most pro-Israel president ever. He hadn't. Bush was expected to govern as a moderate conservative, but on most issues he's become hard core. He was expected to relax after November 2. Instead, he's plotting for next year. Presidents, indeed most politicians, are disinclined to give aides credit for their success. But Bush surprised Washington on the day after his reelection by calling Karl Rove "the architect" of his victory. The conventional wisdom is that Bush endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to help win reelection but won't actually push it. The surprise of his second term may be that he pushes it aggressively.
* VISIONARY. Really. True, the word just doesn't seem to go with the Bush persona, or at least with the popular notion of Bush, the swaggering Texan. But in speech after speech, Bush has laid out a vision of democratizing the Middle East, then the world. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, last week, he pretended Canada shares his "great commitment . . . to enhance our own security by promoting freedom and hope and democracy in the broader Middle East." Most of Europe and Bush's own State Department disagree with this effort. But Bush is adamant. "It is cultural condescension to claim that some peoples or some cultures or some religions are destined to despotism and unsuited for self-government," he said in Halifax. With little fanfare, Bush also changed America's national security strategy from containment to preemption.
So where does all this leave us in understanding Bush? The first step is to abandon the original preconception of President Bush. He's different. The second step is to accept that he's attempting big things. And the third, as a result, is to get ready for a second presidential term like few we've seen.
Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
Now that I've thought about it, I'm not 100% confident of 4th Pres as Barnes' home church. I'll have to double-check with my friend in DC...But there is no doubt that he's evangelical. This friend of mine has heard his testimony.
Amen to that pb.
Those who despise him, better get out of his way.
The Democrat Party is full of SOBs, and Reid isn't their Senate leader for no reason...he's the chief SOB.
Yep--we will just have to use the mighty power of the FReepers to help get the extra Republicans elected in 2006.
I have been saying this since January, 2001. "Just wait for the second term." I hope he can do something about abortion.
I think Fred said on "Beltway Boys" one night that he was an evangelical Christian. I have heard him refer to his faith 5 or 6 times.
Strategery!
When they lionize Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, Algore and Bill Clinton, it doesn't take rocket science to understand their mental block.
I don't think there is a Democratic party anymore, it died four years ago. All that's left of what they were is a leftist, socialist, anarchist, destroy America at any cost cult.
W has done more to get rid of the inept liberals and increase the power of conservatives than, well, Bill Clinton did!
Bring on Hillary and the Dems will be a minority party for the next two generations.
If you are FOR democracy you are FOR socialism...
No democracy has ever existed that wasn't a socialist system. EVER..
Democracts are FOR democracy, and some republicans are FOR it TOO..
What is Bush for..?.. (read above)..
Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx
Super!
'gonna print and put on frig to read every day and feel GOOOOD
THANKS!
I'll refrain from assessing which President will be deemed by history as greater, as I wish to avoid the competition of sorts that seems to arise among supporters when the two are mentioned. My personal attachment is greater to G.W. I admit, since I was only a child while Reagan was President.
I admire both men. God blessed this nation (and the world) at each moment when we needed his intervention most. Each man was gifted with the skilled "weaponry" essential to achieve victory in the climate existant at time office was/is held as he has done throughout our history.
Washinton, Lincoln and down through our years we've had the 'right man at the right time".
Bush's agenda in the 2nd term is aggressive. It is full of risks, I think that partly attracts the Prez. LOL
He'll continue to need prayerful intercession.
When it comes to socializing that's true. But when it comes to government growth, spending, and no vetoes, he's as inside the Beltway as it gets.
I don't know if it was my age or lack of interest but Reagan never captured my heart and mind in the way President Bush has. I didn't initially back him (I actually didn't like the little I read about him) in the 2000 race but went with a friend to see him at a primary campaign rally. I walked away converted and told everyone I knew that he was a sleeping giant. Little did I know what events would transpire or how he would rise to meet them.
Just gettin' on board are you? Most of us have been with W for years. Albeit, his domestic policies are much too socialist.
The extraordinary thing about Bush is his simplicity. By that I don't mean simpleton. He is very bright. He is stright ahead. The Democrats have not yet figured this out. If he says something I don't believe Bush has an ancillary calculus. If he says something you can believe him. The very best thing about the president is his core beliefs, which I think Mrs. Bush had a lot to do with. He has discombobulated them with his beliefs which are foreign to them. He is not ashamed to put his belief system front and center. Then they try to ascribe some meaning to it that they would have used it for. When he said Christ was the person who had the most influence on him , they all thought he was pandering to the Christian right. He was answering the question. When the pundents got thru dissecting his statement they didn't understand. But Bush and millions of fundamentalist and evangelicals did understand. He simply gave Jesus the preeminence in his life that the Lord deserved. Bush had them in derision. Now in his wake he has slayed all democrats,liberals, leftist media types. It must be sweet to see Dan Rather going down because of his own venom, after the way Rather tried to sandbag Bushes father. Bush has made nice nice with the left, but now must carry thru on the concervative prescriptions he spoke of in the campaign. Fundamentally President Bush is a good man who mean what he says and says what he means.
Just gettin' on board are you? Most of us have been with W for years. Albeit, his domestic policies are much too socialist. Regardless, he's one tough hombre.
I read an article a little while ago on "The Hill" website about Harry Reid, who took Daschle's place. Oh, boy, he is adding something like 17 new staff members, and is forming a Democrat War Room in Wellstone's old offices in order to get "more organized". He also said that if people think because he is "soft spoken" that he will be easier for the Republicans to deal with, forget it, he says he plans on making it harder on the Republicans by not only better organization in the Senate, but with the outside groups like NARAL, AFL/CIO, MOVE.ON.ORG, and other 527's.
Methinks we celebrated too soon. They also already have reams of notes on the records of every possible candidate that Bush will nominate for SCOTUS, with their records and their "negatives" ready to go as soon as name come up. That way their NEW press corps. will be able to get the smear job out before the Republicans can "promote" the candidate.
He then said, that they have to learn to smear people like the Republicans have done all these years, and that they (the Dems)have played "nice" for too long.
Don't take this the wrong way, but why would a good Texan like you be afraid of a rattlesnake like Reid.
He's planning NOTHING NEW! Smear our candidates? Line up all those radical Left groups? Stop being nice?? COME ON!! The 'Rats invented BORKING. They tried to smear Thomas. They still think those tactics will work?
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